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On this page we have tried to gather information about the famous kite designer from New Zealand: Peter Lynn. Although we are sure that this list is not at all complete, we have tried to find at least the most prominent proofs of the creativity of Peter. We have also tried to be as objective as possible, but sometimes we had not got enough "official" information from Peter or my comments are somewhat biased.
In the meantime, we have got some more official information directly from Peter!
If you want information about one specific kite, then klick with the mouse pointer on the name in the following table:
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OctopusThe octopus (Picture by Katja Eing) is one of the most famous and well known kites of Peter. Available in three different sizes, the most popular ones are the huge 27m long versions of this biest. The octopus was originally designed by Peter in 1990.
Additional pictures by Andrew Beattie: two in flight (large) and closeup.
Andrew Notes: This is just so *HUGE*, you would think that it would take a team to fly it, but no, it only takes two people. One to hold part of the vent open to the wind and another to run with the line (It was either 0.5 or 1 ton spectra sleeved in Dacron. Despite the size, the
Manta "Ray"The manta (Picture by Katja Eing)comes (as usual) in three different sizes, prizes vary from around $310 for the smallest (Picture1 and Picture2 by Anja Malle) to about $6000 for the biggest manta. Sizes vary from about 1.4m x 3m to 10m x 20m long. The manta was originally designed by Peter already in 1988.
The kite consist of the body and the tail. Front and back panel of the body are made of 196 nearly rectangular patches each. The two panels are connected via 18 profiles. The air-inlet consist of 6 gaze-patches. On the back panel there are two eyes, on the front panel there are additional black stripes attached which should indicate the gills (not on all mantas). The tail is made of patches of the same size as the body and additional about 14 conical parts which produce the necessary drag to stabilize the whole biest. The bridle consist of about 80 bridle lines which are organised in two groups and afterwards connected to one central bridle point.
The manta is said to be rather unstable (this is information that I got from the owner of a 12m manta), although I have already seen some smaller mantas which were rather stable and also my own manta is flying rather stable. Although the octopus is much more common than the manta I like the 12m version of it as much as the octopus.
It seems that Peter has changed some of the construction details and also the colors he uses for the big manta just recently. On Fanö '94 I saw Peter trying to make a manta fly where the air inlet was much bigger and the black stripes on the front panel had vanished (I said "Peter tried" because due to the very strong wind, a 1 ton flying line broke at least two times...)
Bernhard Notes: I did not like the manta from beginning, but since Peter uses a different color schema (from black in the middle, then blue, green, yellow orange and red to the tips) this is one of my favourite Peter Lynn kites.
Andrew Notes: The manta comes in 4 sizes: Mini, Midi, Maxi and Megamax. The one that was at Fanö '94 was even bigger than the Maxi, and was cristened "Big Ben" by the workshop (without Peter's approval). I recall 2 failures to fly it at Fano. The first time, the line (rated not at 1000kg, but at 2000kg, I believe) broke when trying to use the manta to lift the condom. On the second attempt, the "fuse" part of the bridle broke as designed (the line that links the two half bridles together is designed to fail before the strain becomes sufficient to rip the ~=80 bridles from the skin. As for the issue of colour, I think that the choice of colour is largely guided by the assortment of scraps available for cutting into the lozenge-shapes required for the patchwork...
Peter Notes:Andrews remark about the colours is sometimes true. We have given up trying to make "popular" graphics - any colour choice finds someone who thinks it is the most beautiful than before.
Another view of the manta (Picture by Anja Malle).
Turtle "Myrtle"The turtle (Picture by Anja Malle) is a softkite in the shape of a turtle. This kite has got much more air inlets than any other soft-kite I know. There are at least holes for the head, the body, two arms and two legs. The body is made out of several heagons, which ressemble the natural color of a turtle quite nicely. The kite is rather stable, despite it is rather wide and not very long. It flies already in low winds (similar to the big octopus).
Peter Notes:The turtle is available in two different sizes (2.5m x 5m and 5m x 10m). A powerful and afficient kite thta requires and rewards competent flying. Stability is adjusted by adding variable amounts of weight to the drogue.
Centipede "Cedrick"The centipede (Picture by Anja Malle) is a line-toy, i.e. it will not fly on its own. It resembles a cater-pillar with its many moving legs and arms. The centipede was the first huge soft-kite that Peter invented in 1984.
The centipede usually has got ten legs on each side of the body, but there also exist some really HUGE versions of it with 25 legs on each side of the body. Usually the body and the legs are filled with air (except the small version, where only the body is inflatable). The whole kite is sewn together from triangles which gives the kite its characteristic appearance. The legs are spread with the help of two tentacles at the head of the kite (if you are a purist you might argue that because of the spars inside the tentacles, the centipede is NOT a soft-kite).
The centipede requires a good lifter, because usually it produces a strong drag on the line. Perfectly suited for this task is of course a 3D-Box...
Peter has produced different versions of the centipede. In the beginning the legs were spread by a sort of cross spar. This version of the centipede did not have the tentacles, but since a long time now, the cross-spar is replace by the above mentioned two spars inside the tentacles.
Peter Notes:The centipede is an exciting kite/line device. Comprises approximately 450 individual panels. Sinous flying motion. Provides strong lift and can be flown under any suitable "pilot" kite. Easy to assemble and fly - soft except for two spars (feelers).
GeckoThe gecko (back view by Katja Eing and front view by Bernhard Malle) was for the first time shown on the Fanö event in June 1993. It is available from the usual retail shops in two different sizes.
Bernhard Notes: At the same time as Peter (on the Fanoe Festival '93) a German group also had produced a gecko. They looked very similiar except the bridle. Whereas Peter only needs very few bridle lines and also only a few people to get the huge beast into the air, the Germans used MANY bridle lines and a whole team for the same purpose.
Peter Notes: The gecko is our sixth original inflatable kite, with realistic climbing motion and fantastic eye catching "presence". Uses weighted tail for stability.
CyclopsThis is a kite of Peter that is rarely known and also rarely seen. It seems not to be commercially produced. It looks like a white octopus with 7 tentacles. The graffic was done by Tony Wolfenden. The only reference that I have found to the cyclops is a picture of the kite in an old issue of KiteLines about an AKA convention.
Peter Notes:This kite was a one-off work especially for Tom Casselman.
Fugu The blowfish (Picture by Joanne Beattie) is not a real kite. It will not fly, but rather lift some meters into the air and afterwards slowly sink down again.
Since the first prototype (Picture 1 (© by Carl Crowell) and Picture 2 (by Anja Malle)) of the fugu which could be seen on Fanö '92, most of the fugus are black and the quality of the sewn sphere is really astonishing.
The fugu is made out of one VERY long stripe of ripstop (approx. 20cm wide and 1.5km long...). The air inlet is the mouth. The fugu has got two eyes, two fins and one tail. The surface of it is covered with many spines. The bridle lines (as long as you can the lines with which the fugu is connected to the ground bridle) are attached to the mouth; these lines do not stop right at the air inlet but are continued into the body to better distribute the stress of from the mouth to the whole body.
Andrew Notes: This isn't a kite or a wind-sock. It is a Bernoullii (sp?) device. It is basicaly spherical, with an opening at the front. It fills up looking much like a hot air balloon on it's side. The top curved surface acts as an airofoil, causing it to rise, until it clears the ground. It continues to rise until the lower surface (and gravity) pulls it down, so that it squashes on the ground only to be lifted up again. It's great fun for for the kids who like to play underneath, so that the thing squashes on top of them before taking off again. I liked this so much that I plan on making my own Bernoullii device. So far, I have made a 5' diameter prototype and it works well. All I need now is (n x 100)meters of ripstop to make a big one.
Bernhard Notes: I have just decided to NOT build the blowfish from Peter Lynn. The decision is based on a simple EXCEL spreadsheet where I have calculated how many ripstop I need in order to make blowfishes with 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3m radius. The surface of the blowfishes range from 4.1 sqm (1m radius) to 37.7 sqm (3m radius). I just wanted to go for the 2.5m radius blowfish (surface 26.1 sqm) but just for fun I tried to calculate the amount of ripstop needed if one uses 10cm wide stripes...... I stopped the calculation when I saw that the amount of ripstop needed was more than 90m..... It will be slightly better, if you use 5cm wide stripes, but you still need about 70m. (not taking into account, how many seems you must have to sew...)
You might say that this is just the proof that a sphere has the smallest surface of all 3d volumes, but I was not aware that this is really so dramatic!
Peter Notes:The fugu is especially aimed at entertaining children. With suitable supervision it is safe for older children to play underneath the fugu as it bounces and even for children to be allowed in through the mouth to play inside, (while the fugu is held on the ground of course!). Current record is 120 children inside! Over excitement is the greatest worry!
CondomThis kite is also "only" a line-toy (although I am not sure whether to call a approx. 50 feet long condom a toy). Peter had been asked to produce a kite for an anti-AIDS compagne and this is the result. (Sorry, no picture available yet!)
Peter Notes:The design for the condom was made by Phillip McConnaktik (sp?).
TrilobiteAside from his usual studies of fish and fauna, Peter has recently opened the section on palaentology.
His latest creation is a trilobite (Picture by Kevin Mayeshiro). As usual, it's something of the order of 50 feet long. It uses an unusual construction technique - it has no ribs in most of the body. Instead, it's shape is held together with bits-of-string (tm). Since the ribs usualy comprise about one-third of the weight of a soft kite, this leads to a considerable saving and helps it's low-wind performance considerably. It's interesting to be able to easily hand-hold and fly something that blotts out so much sky.
When interviewed about the monster over the PA in Bristol, the announcer asked how long it took to make it, obviously expecting an answer measured in weeks or months, but Peter replied that the time to design and build it from scratch was 52 hours!
Peter Notes:We also have decided now for September (95) to built a 650 sqm Trilobite.
Rear view of the trilobite (Picture © by Carl Crowell).
EelOn the Napier-Festival in New Zealand Peter showed for the first time the newest, and surely one of his largest, creations (Picture by Anja Malle). The name of the animal is eel, but when we saw it for the first time flying in Fanö '95 someone created the name "rocket-worm" (there is a movie with creatures of a similar shape with the title "Arrival of the rocket-worms").
The new animal is very impressive in the air and the way the bridle is attached to it is also astonishing. Nevertheless it is reported that this new kite can be rather unstable and tends to move from one side of the wind-window to the other. This behaviour has caused even some accident during the Nappier festival. On Fanö there was so much place on the beach that there was no such danger.
Peter Notes:The Eel is another inflatbale kite with excellent wind range. Approx. 3m x 23m. It is easy to launch when you know the technique. Some think it the ugliest kite I have ever made and others love it. The Eel is unstable in light winds, but becomes very stable in strong winds.
Dolphin "Pete"This kite (Picture by Katja Eing) appeared for the first time on the International Kite Fliers Meeting in Fanö '94. It is said to be named after Pete Dolphin, the current president of the AKA. The dolphin flies only with at least two or three of the big Piranha-windsocks (Peter calls these drogues "Fishtraction") attached.
Peter Notes:The Dolphin can be flown on a short line close to the ground, to act more as a "bouncer", and in this mode will handle very strong winds, (but be safety conscious). In medium range winds, fly on a longer line as a normal kite.
Two dolphins shaking hands on the Fanö '95 festival (front view and rear view; pictures by Anja Malle)
Frog "Phreddie"The Frog is a new large soft kite from Peter, based on a design by Phillip McConnochie, also available in three different sizes. Prices for the kites are similar to other soft kites of Peter.
Pictures by Andrew Beattie: front and rear (large).
Fish drogue "Fishtration"The Fishtration principally is just a drogue which is used at some Peter Lynn kites to stabilize the construction (for Dolphin "Pete" either two big or four small drogues are needed..) Available in three different sizes from 0.7m x 0.5m, 1.35m x 1m up to 2.5m x 2m. Designed originally in 1991.
3D-BoxLong time before Peter became famous for his huge and giant softkites he had already invented (in 1973) a particular type of box-kites which is known as the Peter Lynn 3D-Box (Picture by Katja Eing). Whenever there is the need for a good and reliable lifting device, the 3D-box is a perfect candidate.
Peter Notes:These kites are very easy to fly and great for towing banners etc. They often incorporate special designs or logos to the customers requirements. Very versatile and reliable. Available in three different sizes.
There are other kite designers that have produced impressive softkites, (like Wolfgang Schimmelpfennig "The Boss" and "Jake the Snake", Peter Rieleit "The Superfly" and "Banana", Nop Velthuizen "Bee or so") but it seems that there are only very few, that have investigated the area of power kiting, buggies, power surfer and alike as much as Peter.
PeelSome time ago Andrew has posted a review about the Peel.
BuggySome time ago Andrew has posted a review of the Peter Lynn buggy.
Another source of information is the updated version (July 1995) of Peter Lynns "Kite Sailing, Boats and Ski Buggies".
If any reader of this page can supply us with better and detailed information or pictures from any Peter Lynn kite that is not yet featured on this page, then please send information to either Andrew Beattie or Bernhard Malle.
Page created June '95
Last update:
95/10/31
